africa

Africa at a Fork in the Road: Taking Off or Disappointment Once Again?
ued reforms. I attribute this partly to the change that has taken place in politics.
Many African governments are reluctant to pursue an agenda of continued reforms
largely because the reforms may not be popular, and they fear the consequences
for themselves when it comes to elections. The spread of democracy itself is not
the problem. Rather, in many African countries the problem is that democracy has
not been hinged on institutions that have gradually developed and been anchored
in an African system. So the legal system functions well on occasion, but on many
other occasions it doesn’t really deliver. And that affects business decision making
significantly. The votes that different parliamentarians expect in the next election
influence the contributions they make to a discussion of reforms. Parliaments have
handicaps in terms of how radical they can be in dealing with the issues.
I believe there is a need for Africans to think about the institutions that they have
developed in the last couple of decades, and about how these relate to the management
of the economy and society, and whether they allow for the gestation of
new ideas that will encourage more and more reform.
Moving forward, what can African governments do? Carlos Lopes has talked about
a new boldness (see Chapter 3 in this volume—Ed.), and I believe that one finds
that new boldness in many young Africans, but not within governments to do even
what they know is the right thing to do. For example, as I mentioned earlier, I have
yet to find an African government happy to talk about new areas of taxation, or public
sector reforms. Land tenure reforms are a no-go area in most countries. These are
not the kinds of things that attract votes. Indeed there are very few African leaders I
can look at and say I know what they believe in. Most of the leaders flip flop—what
they talk about depends on who is going to support them. So the bold decisions are
still to be made. To have a solid industrial policy in place, for example, you need a
leader who is willing to craft it or put together groups who will craft it and develop
a strategy for it. We need a new generation of African leaders who can articulate a
strong vision of where they want to go.
How do we engender this new boldness? It will not be easy, but whenever we get a
chance we must talk about the need for reforms. We should, with our research, be
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